Fair Work recovers $470,000 in back pay

Popular food outlets in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney have been ordered to pay nearly half-a-million dollars in lost wages to hundreds of workers after an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman found staff were underpaid.

Fair Work inspectors targeted businesses in Victoria Street in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond, Glebe Point Road in Sydney's Glebe and Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, recovering $471,904 for 616 workers across the three states.

"We are pleased the Food Precincts Campaign has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars being put back in the pockets of workers, and sent a definitive message to those employers who are doing the wrong thing," Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said in a statement on Wednesday.